Vacancy

Robin Clifford

Laura Clifford

When their car breaks down on a deserted road, David and Amy Fox
(Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale) have little choice but to make the best
of it and spend the night at a shabby motel. With a beat up TV set and VCR
their only entertainment, the watch a cheaply made slasher movie. As they
watch the film they realize that it was shot in the very room
they are staying! Little do they know that they are about to fight for their
lives in “Vacancy.”

Robin:
Director Nimrod Antal pays homage to Alfred Hitchcock, particularly “Psycho,”
in the horror thriller that thrusts David and Amy into a precarious situation.
Right from the start, with a score (by Paul Haslinger) that smacks of the
works of the great Bernard Herrmann, we get the flavor of the horror master.
The couple, about to get divorced after their young son died in an accident,
is on their way to Amy’s parents home for an anniversary party. While she
sleeps, David decides to take a short cut but nearly wrecks their car avoiding
a raccoon in the road, causing some unknown damage to the engine.

They come across a gas station in the middle of nowhere and are helped out
by the owner. They drive off but, two miles down the road, the car really
breaks down. They tromp back to the garage only to find it locked up tight,
leaving them little choice but to take a room at the seedy Pinewood Motel.
When they watch the movies left in the room and realize where they were filmed,
the couple is startled by the ringing phone and pounding on the door. But
no one is there. It dawns on them that they are in real danger and must escape
or perish.

Helmer Antal, working with a script by Mark L. Smith, establishes David and
Amy as two average people pushed into an anything but an average situation.
Once this is done, the director ratchets up the action as the hotel manager,
Mason (Frank Whaley), and his two faceless cohorts terrorize the couple with
the threat of violent death. It is up to the Foxes, though, to find a way
out and to safety.

Nothing unexpected really happens during the course of vacancy but the quality
of the production, a fairly suspenseful script and decent acting make the
85 minute run time breeze by. Luke Wilson and Kate Beckinsale give depth
to David and Amy as they fight for survival. Frank Whaley, as the head of
his little snuff production company, has fun in his role. His masked cohorts
are merely that, though creepy nonetheless.

Production credits are decent with Haslinger’s score keeping pace with the
suspense as the David and Amy fight for their lives. Camera work, by Andrsej
Sekula, adds to the thrills with its varied viewpoints and tight composition.

There are some genuine thrills in “Vacancy” that make it a decent bill of
fare for the horror fans. I give it a B-.